20060623 KDDC Truck Rodeo video on Carroll County Times We site

Truck Rodeo video on Carroll County Times web site

By Kevin Dayhoff

June 23, 2006

In a continuing drive to bring the Carroll County Times into the electronic news media era, the local paper founded on October 6, 1911, when photographs were hardly used in newspapers, is posting videos on their web site.

For a paper the size of the Carroll County Times, this is a big deal, although other Landmark newspapers, (the Carroll County Times is owned by Landmark Community Newspapers, a subsidiary of Landmark Communications) such as The Virginian-Pilot, Norfolk, VA; The Roanoke (VA) Times and the News & Record in Greensboro, NC, have been making great use of video for some time.

It could be argued that considering the size of the paper and market, The Roanoke (VA) Times, may have one of the best web-sites of any community newspaper.

In the Maryland area, one local newspaper that has made a huge stake in the future of video on an otherwise, traditional local newspaper web site is

www.delawareonline.com, the web site of The News Journal, out of Wilmington, Del.

I’m told that the Truck rodeo video was shot and edited by assistant editor Jamie Kelly?

Although, the video is certainly not in the entertainment league with the Connie Chung video, nor does it appear that the Times will be giving You Tube a run for its money anytime soon, the advent of video on the web site is a welcome advance in getting out the local news.

Especially, for example, considering the possibility of showing a quote by a community leader in addition to printing the quote. So much of communication is non-verbal and lots of the translation can be lost in the print version.

The article explaining the Truck rodeo can be found here: Truck Road-eo competition gives plow drivers chance to strut their stuff. The image pasted above, is from the Carroll County Times video… I got a kick out of the part where the backhoe operator was demonstrating operator skills by placing the tire over the pole...

The video is here: Watch the video and here: Serious Snow Removal… (Oh, go here instead.)

For an index of the videos offered on the web site, go here.

Some of the explanation of the video is pasted here:

Truck Road-eo competition gives plow drivers chance to strut their stuff
Watch the video (Oh, go here instead.)

“Driving around an obstacle course or maneuvering big rigs and backhoes in difficult conditions may seem like a fun way to spend a day, but for participants in the annual Paul A. Croasmun Memorial Truck Rod-eo, it can also be a learning experience.

“The event was held Thursday at Carroll Community College. Drivers competed in a variety of tasks designed to simulate things they might encounter while removing snow.

“The day started out with local competitions, followed by a K-9 demonstration conducted by the Carroll County Sheriff's Office, a sobriety driving simulation course, a backhoe competition and then a regional competition involving drivers from Frederick, Howard, Baltimore and Carroll counties competing for a regional trophy.”

Kevin Dayhoff writes from Westminster Maryland USA.

E-mail him at: kdayhoff@carr.org

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